It's not THAT bad .......ok yeah it is, IF you look at everything. The trick is to start small. Like me, there's no way I'm going to understand the graphics code and such right off the bat, so I decided to look at the HUD code. From there I slowly began changing little things, then trying my own things by imitating other code in similar functions, then trying my own things, then expanding outward into related code.
My previous experience? Command-line type stuff. So Mongoose and you other interested beginners, you can do just fine if you are patient and don't dive in TOO fast. Pick an area to learn and focus on it... try things, make changes to see what happens, ask questions etc.
I'm learning a lot! The funny thing is, learning these old school methods will either be beneficial (if I get a job working on old code) or come back to bite me (if I get a job working on new code)
I echo what WMCoolmon says about the Visual Studio series. Though, I must say the free 2005 Express Edition works well, and I'd wager if you're NOT already used to the advanced features in the Professional versions (like WMC probably is), it'd fit you just fine. And you can't beat the price (besides of course the whole YOUR SOUL to Microsoft part... j/k
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Hey WMCoolmon, what's this about using the toolkit compiler in MSVC 2003? I've got 2003... how much does the toolkit compiler help?